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or a metropolitan city of 10 million people spread over 661.5 square kilometers, many things must be watched over to ensure the safety of residents.

For that, 7,300 CCTV cameras have been installed in public places throughout Jakarta to monitor people, roads and buildings 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The cameras are part of the city administration’s Jakarta Smart City (JSC) program. Established in 2014 by then-governor Basuki Tjahajha “BTP” Purnama, aka Ahok, the program uses technology to support the administration’s goals of fostering smart governance, smart people, a smart economy, smart living and a smart environment.

The cameras are largely strategically located in areas that are prone to crime, brawls, floods and traffic congestion, JSC unit head Setiaji said. Surveillance is necessary to help make the capital city safe, he added.

“Anyone can access the real-time footage: Just open our website,” Setiaji recently told The Jakarta Post, referring to smartcity.jakarta.go.id.

Most of the CCTV cameras were donated by organizations and companies in partnership with the unit, he said. Of the cameras that belong to the city, the Transportation Agency has 140, the Public Works Agency five and the Water Resource Agency 51. The Transportation Agency installed 39 more in motorized vehicle check centers: 16 in Cilincing in North Jakarta and 23 altogether in Pulogadung and Ujung Menteng in East Jakarta.

Some cameras were installed by city-owned companies such as market operator PD Pasar Jaya, which has eight, food security firm Food Station, which has four, and bus operator PT Transjakarta, which has 173. The Jakarta General Elections Commission also installed four cameras around its offices in Central Jakarta. The rest of the cameras are managed by IT companies like BITEK, which has 515, IBS, which has 744, Bali Tower, which has 4,105, iForte, which has 706, Mitratel, which has 689, and Delta Art Star, which has 184.

All of them, whether installed by the city or by companies, are connected to a monitoring center operated by JSC at City Hall.

“They’re all active,” Setiaji claimed. “We have some officers who are responsible for monitoring them all every day.”

However, when the Post attempted to stream the videos over the official website, some cameras appeared to not be active.

Most of the cameras that worked fine were ones Transjakarta had set up in busway stops on several corridors. The ones used by the Transportation Agency also worked perfectly, showing traffic conditions on a number of crowded streets and intersections throughout the city. Most of the inactive cameras were in integrated child-friendly public spaces.

The primary duty of the two officers posted in the JSC monitoring center is not to oversee the situation in the city as recorded by the cameras. One of the CCTV officers, Sarinah Fitriah, told the Post that during her 9-to-5 working hours, she was mainly responsible for checking whether the cameras were working well.

“I have to take note and write a report if something obstructs a camera: for example, if the camera’s off, if there’s something blocking the view, or if the camera’s shooting at the wrong angle,” Sarinah said.

Although the cameras record high-definition video, most of them can only store a maximum of six hours of footage. However, those of the Transportation Agency are able to keep up to three days of video.

Both Setiaji and Fitriah said the CCTV cameras had mostly benefited the city by helping in police investigations by providing footage recorded at important scenes.

“We could help the police when a crime or brawl occurs somewhere in the city. We’d find the nearest CCTV cameras and contact the operator to retrieve the footage as evidence,” Sarinah explained.